Natural Disaster
by Daughter of the Storm
Summary: Jill was sick of her tiny old run-down town. She had just been fired from her job, and was about to be evicted. When she finds a brochure about "The Exciting Ranch Plan," her desire to leave the town will bring her to Flower Bud Village. .:Jill x ?:.
1. Asshole Managers and Train Stations

**Me: Hey all! I'd be lying if I said that this is my first fanfic. I've done, like, a total of four or five chapters spread out over... two or three stories. Those have been long deleted, though. Lolz. However, this is my first Harvest Moon fanfic, if it's any consolation. Not that consolation's really needed, but I do in fact need an excuse for my crappy writing. :P**

**Well, enjoy!**

* * *

What an unhappy day it was.

Absolutely nothing had gone right for Jill that day.

First off, she had lost her job. The small store she worked at (which wasn't so much a convenience store as it was the store that was a jumbled mess of absolute crap that seemed to come from nowhere) had closed down. Gone out of business. The only bright side to it was that the manager of the ex-store had given her a paycheck that covered the next week. Four hundred dollars. Too bad it didn't even cover the rent for the cramped apartment she lived in. No siree, Bob, she would **not **in fact have anywhere to stay in about four days' time.

Next --oh, yes, there was more-- the bus stop that she waited at daily to get home from work didn't have any sort of shelter from the rain. Which wouldn't be a problem, had it not been raining. But, because on this fateful day the upper deities just seemed to **hate** Jill, and, alas, it was raining.

The chances of Jill being able to sink any further into her pale blue jacket were slim to none. Her body was as tightly enveloped in the thick-but-still-freezing-cold-and-wet garment as it could possibly go, and even her pigtailed, brunette head was withdrawn far down into the neck hole. Her pigtails stayed outside of the hood over her barely-visible head and at this point, she just didn't care. She had even gone so far as to pull her arms backwards through the arm holes and now had them wrapped tightly around herself, rubbing her upper arms. She pushed her head up through the neck hole a bit to peer into the murky gray rain, and, frustrated, let out a sad but irritated sigh. Life was _so_ not good right now. At least the thought of a warm change of dry clothing and possibly a hot cup of tea or cocoa consoled her. Yeah... she'd wrap herself up in her bright red fleece blanket and sit in front of the television, sipping the sweet drink and watching one of those cartoons she hadn't watched since she was a child. Like the Looney Toons. Oh, what a comfortable night she had ahead of her, barring the fact that nights like this in her apartment would be numbered. But that could be forgotten for a few solitary hours.

...But Jill was definitely going to get hypothermia if she stayed out here like this. Where was that bus? It was still freezing, and the biting cold that stained her cheeks and nose red was keeping her from sinking into a lovely, cocoa-and-cartoons fantasy. Stupid coldness.

For a few minutes the brunette pushed her miserable thoughts into the back of her head and concentrated on counting the cracks in the old, dirty street. She had just gotten to twenty-two when a loud, ear splitting scream nearly burst poor Jill's eardrums. She jerked her head up to find the source of it, and realized that it was only the brakes of the bus. "The Death Trap," as she liked to call it, was an old double-decker bus that seemed to have been pulled out of a junkyard a long time ago, judging by the light, garbage-y scent that always seemed to cling to it, as well as the faded red paint that was almost all the way chipped off of the outside, leaving the metal outer shell of the vehicle a scratched, dull gray.

Jill grimaced and quickly closed the distance between her and the pressurized glass doors of the bus that may or may not lead to temporary warmth inside. They opened when she approached, and Jill vaguely waved to the portly old man who drove it. He was used to seeing her every day, and had stopped asking her for her buss pass some time ago, so she could just walk right on the bus.

Thankfully, the inside of the bus was dully warm, and held only two people: some random woman Jill didn't know who was digging through her purse, and the town's very own crazy bum. He wasn't into harassing normal people, only asking for change (Bum) and walking around town muttering to himself strange things (Crazy). Therefore, Crazy Bum.

Jill chose a seat relatively close to the front. She didn't want to disturb either of the other two passengers, and sat with her head in one hand, staring out the foggy window at the gray silhouettes and vague black images that were ten or more feet away from her. Hey, at least she hadn't gotten hypothermia. Bus boredom was better than that.

* * *

After getting off the bus reluctantly (It was a Death Trap, but it sure was warmer than out there) Jill practically flew into the main lobby of the apartment building to be greeted by a very ruffled looking, old doorman. Probably just bored that she was the only one to greet all day, but that wasn't any of the brunette girl's concern. She had a warm fleece blanket and scalding hot chocolate drink with mini pink and white marshmallows waiting for her.

Suddenly in considerably higher spirits, Jill danced up the two flights of stairs and pranced down the hallway, not even minding her sopping wet clothing all that much anymore. She approached her door at the end of the small hallway and reached into her right pocket, where she always put her key...

"Crap!"

To find that it was gone. She checked the left pocket, and after that both back pockets and the two jacket pockets. She even checked her bra; sometimes she shoved stuff in there without thinking. But, of course, she came up with nothing. Jill spun around and leaned back against the door, sliding down slowly. Why couldn't the gods just magically make her disappear until life was good again? Of course. They're selfish and like to put lesser people in pain. Duh.

Jill contemplated just laying down right there of the worn light brown carpet and fall asleep; only now did she realize how stressful the day had been, and she was exhausted from the force of it all. So there she was, sitting on the over-treaded carpet outside her locked apartment, soaking wet, and she wanted to sleep, or maybe just lay there and sob while simultaneously marveling at her bad luck. Wait, she was already doing the marveling part. She must have been born under a bad star or something.

Well, the only thing to do now besides sob or fall asleep in the hallway would be to go stay at the train station that also seemed to function as the town's homeless shelter for maybe the... four homeless people this tiny, broken-down town. Soon enough there would be five homeless people, at least until Jill could find a new job and apartment. Frankly, she was quite sick of this one. The only reason she didn't have the apartment manager unlock her door for her was because it (being the whole "lost my key" thing) had happened once already, and after a two-hour lecture, the manager had threatened that if this ever happened again that she would be evicted, and then unlocked the door. After that he tossed a spare key at the girl and she fumbled with it for a few moments, scared by the manager, before muttering a thank you and entering the room, locking it behind her.

Sadly, Jill would have actually preferred the entire scene to repeat again if possible; if it meant getting back inside to the warmth and vague comfort of her tiny apartment, she would do it. However, a repeat of last time was impossible, as if she told the manager anything of this he'd evict her. Either way, the not-so-dry brunette was out of an apartment for the time being, which led back to the train station/homeless shelter thing.

So Jill reluctantly pulled herself off the ground, where she had been sitting with her head on her drawn-up knees, and started the trek down the hallway and back down the stairs. When she arrived at the ground floor (the doorman had mysteriously disappeared), instead of going outside she looked out the window at the still ever-murky rain. She couldn't remember when the last time there had been a clear rain, the type that doesn't hinder sight and looks like falling shards of liquid glass. All the rain they got in this town was dirty, like it had been tainted before it fell by some unknown deity that just loved to piss anyone and everyone off.

If looks could kill, then the glare Jill was sending at the rain through the window would have stopped the falling sky water in its tracks. The poor window, caught in the crossfire, would have shattered. Naturally, none of this happened, but it was a nice thought.

The brunette girl sighed. If she was going back out there, she might as well do it now, right? She couldn't wait here for the rain to stop. The lobby was warmer than outside, but it was still considerably cold, and even then Jill didn't want to be caught in here by the manager. It'd look suspicious, and he'd want a prompt explanation as to why she was down here dripping water all over his lobby's carpet when she should be up in her warm apartment and not disgracing his view of the room with her presence. From there she might not have a way out of telling the manager she lost her key, and then she'd get evicted... which was going to happen anyway, but she at least wanted to keep her apartment for the next four days until her rent was due. Or maybe she _would_ be able to afford it, if she sold a bunch of her old junk to the pawn shop, and she'd have another month in home sweet home. Home sweet apartment. Anyway, then Jill would have enough time to find a job, and...

...and there was still the fact that Jill couldn't even get _inside._ Yeah, that would put a damper in her plans, for sure. Ah well. Now she was back to the thought that she better just get going.

Jill pulled the hair bands out of her pigtails and shoved them in her pocket, letting her shoulder-length brown hair fall. She ran her fingers through the damp locks and sighed. Oh well. Better get this over with.

So she opened the door and braced herself for the rain when she ran outside, slamming said door behind her and starting the race down three blocks to the train station that she was now to call "home" for whatever amount of time it took to find her key or have a new one made. Sadly, the only person who could do that only opened his shop three days per week, working some odd job the rest of the time. This was one of the days the shop was open, but by now it would have closed.

So Jill continued through the pounding rain until she arrived, huffing, at what was quite possibly the oldest building in the entire town: the train station. She dashed under the overhang along the side of the building and walked slowly along the wall to the door, still trying to catch her breath. Three blocks was a lot in this town, as there were few turning points in the streets.

She opened the door, and a small bell at the top of it jingled as she walked in. Nobody was there except for the ticket vendor, who was asleep at his desk behind the window. Jill grimaced and went to sit down on one of the benches.

This train station was different from the one in the next city over. They had the tickets sold from a vendor outdoors, and didn't really have an indoors area. This one was just kind of weird. Maybe the ticket booth was moved indoors for comfort? It _did_ rain here quite often, so it wouldn't be out of the question...

Jill realized what strange, pointless things she was thinking about, and decided to think of something else. You know, to prove that she wasn't going crazy.

Like the fact that this wouldn't be the first time she'd slept in a train station. When Jill's mom had been alive, they'd once had to spend three nights in this very train station after her mom lost her job. She found another one, and the pair had moved into another apartment. Then four months later, she had been crushed in her work building when an earthquake ripped through the old town. That had been when Jill was twelve. The manager of that apartment building had been kind enough to let Jill stay in her place until she was old enough to work at sixteen. But it had ended up that Jill had to move out when she was seventeen, as even that building had closed down for some reason or other. Jill had been about ready to move, anyway, because the memories were just suffocating her, and at some point she just couldn't take it anymore. Then she had moved into the apartment she lived in now. **Had** lived in, for the moment.

Without Jill's notice, the man at the ticket window had pulled the metal cover down over the glass and had left. Now she was all alone there.

Jill let out another one of the numerous sighs escaping her today. Sitting here was doing nothing for her, but maybe the bulletin board above the brochure stand would have some job offer or something. People tended to put advertisements up there for anything from lost items to job openings.

She got up and made her way across the room to said bulletin board and looked it over. Nothing. Only a few flyers for lost dogs and an advertisement for a restaurant Jill didn't like very much. She held back this sigh. They were doing nothing to help her mood.

To alleviate some of the boredom that was certain to creep up on her soon the brunette bent down and looked at all the brochures. Some had been taken, mostly ones for things like soccer camp and cruises that the takers would never be able to go on.

As she looked past the Carribean getaways and band camps, one brochure caught her eye. It had a beautiful picture of a small village next to a mountain. It looked so tranquil and inviting. In a red, flowery font along the top was "The Exciting Ranch Plan!"

Pfft. No wonder this particular brochure looked so untouched. That was a dumb name.

Nonetheless Jill picked it up and opened it.

Inside was the outline of a program to use the extra land in the village, called Flower Bud Village. All the village needed was participants to work the land, and there were three plots of land available. It even came with a house and a barn already built, and they would give you your first animal.

_I'd be able to do that,_ Jill thought. She'd always been good with animals. Well, by "animals" she meant the goldfish she had owned when she was seven and this one stray cat that lived in the alley next to the first apartment she and her mom had lived in that the brunette had taken care of for a year when she was ten, but nonetheless, she liked animals.

Jill shook her head harshly. She was actually thinking of this? Seriously? Moving to a farm, leaving this town behind?

...Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Even still she folded up the brochure and pocketed it for the moment. She continued to scan the other brochures, looking for something to read, when a voice behind her called her name.

"Jill?"

The brunette whirled her head around to see who it was, to find one of her ex-co-workers (and also one of her only friends in town), Carrie. She had a closed dark blue umbrella in one hand and was lightly shaking it off.

"Oh. Carrie. What are you doing here?" Jill asked.

"Ah, getting to that." The raven-haired girl fished through one pocket. "I believe this belongs to you?"

She held out a small key with chipped, light blue paint covering it. Jill's eyes widened.

"My key! Where'd you find it?" she asked the other girl excitedly.

"You left it at work. I happened to recognize it, and since you weren't at your apartment, naturally, I asked a few people and someone said they saw you come in here." She held out the metal item for Jill to take.

"Thank you so much!" the brunette said, standing up. "You went to so much trouble. I'm sorry." The other girl dropped the key into Jill's outstretched hand.

Carrie placed one hand confidently on her hip. "No prob. Well, it doesn't look like you have an umbrella, so why don't I walk you home? Your place is on the way to mine, anyway."

Jill nodded eagerly. "Sure," she said, smiling. At least _something_ was going right for her today.

Carrie held her umbrella just outside the door she kept from closing with her foot. "Let's go," she said, opening it and holding it up for both of them to squeeze under.

The two walked out onto the sidewalk, chatting animatedly.

* * *

"Alrighty then. Get inside and get something warm to drink. Can't have ya getting sick now," said Carrie.

"All right. Will do," Jill said, nodding once before dashing the few feet between the safety of the umbrella and the small overhang in front of the apartment building's door.

"See you!" called Carrie over the ever-pounding rain. "Good luck finding a job!"

"You too! Thanks again!" Jill called back. She opened the door of the building and walked in. The brunette girl was in a great mood now, and she didn't even notice that the doorman was still missing. Not that it was any of her concern, anyway, but earlier she had just needed something to complain about.

She tapped up the two flights of stairs for the second time that day and walked briskly down the hallway, humming lightly to herself. She unlocked the door and entered her apartment. The smile that adorned her face faded as she realized that she wasn't going to be able to stay in the apartment much longer if she didn't get the money for rent within the next four days. The manager was looking for any opportunity to kick the nineteen-year-old out, and this would definitely be the perfect opportunity.

Sighing softly to herself, Jill entered the apartment and shut the door behind her gently. She suddenly felt drained; the day had been so stressful. If she didn't find a new job soon, she wouldn't know what to do. She started to pull off her soaked clothing, then suddenly remembered the brochure in her pants pocket. Well, if she didn't find a new job, maybe she _did_ know what to do. Did she even want a new job standing behind the counter of a store, or restocking items? There would be new people in this "Flower Bud Village," and, quite frankly, Jill was very sick of all but one of the people in this town, and that one happened to be at her own cozy home with her husband, probably not even fretting too badly over her job loss; after all, he still brought in enough money to pay all the bills and expenses, according to Carrie herself. Apparently her ex-salary, as small as it was, was just extra, for things like movies and dinner at restaurants and trips into the big city. And stuff.

Oh well, though. It was apparent that this town wasn't doing it for Jill, and she needed to move on unless she wanted to be thrown to the streets in four days. Suddenly writing a letter to the village's mayor didn't seem like such a bad idea. Yeah... Jill would do that. She'd do it right now!

...Once she put clothes on, anyway.

* * *

Jill sold all of her stuff, barring the things she needed. Her kitchen appliances belonged to the apartment, so those stayed, but the couches were sold. The bed. Just about everything that the brunette didn't need anymore was sold to the local pawn shop, and now she had enough money to pay for the rent for two months. Not that she would. She had sent off the letter two nights ago to Theodore, the mayor of Flower Bud Village, saying that she would be visiting Flower Bud Village and asking if the "Exciting Ranch Plan" had any room left. All of yesterday and the majority of today was spent taking stuff out of the apartment, down two flights of stairs, and across the street to exchange it for what money the pawn shop owner would give for it. Considering it was all nice, new stuff, Jill got pretty good money for it. But again, it was a pawn shop, so "pretty good money" means "less than what it was worth, but better money than she would normally get."

And now, all she had to do was drag her suitcases down the stairs and hand in her key to the manager.

So Jill did. She pulled her two full suitcases behind her, and step by step, loud thump by thump, she ended up in front of the manager's office.

Without knocking she walked in. The short, bald man looked like he was doing paperwork, and when he noticed Jill his face contorted in anger.

"What do you think you're doing? Get out!" he yelled, pointing at the open door behind her.

"No," said the brunette flatly. "Here." She tossed the key onto his desk. "Take it. I'm moving out. Saves you the trouble of finding a reason to evict me. Have fun with it." And with that she turned and strode out, slamming the door behind her. She laughed a bit to herself outside the door. She was leaving. And now she would never have to see that bastard again! She didn't have to even do any paperwork to leave; it wasn't as if that idiot was letting her live in the apartments _legally_ anyway. His attitude with her had been more along the lines of "Pay rent. Stay there. That's it. You don't receive mail from anyone anyway. No paperwork."

Grabbing her suitcases, she pranced back down the ground floor hallway and back into the lobby, out the door, and onto the cracked, dull sidewalk, which seemed brighter all of a sudden to Jill. The whole town did, now that she didn't have to complain about it anymore. It wasn't her town, wasn't her problem, and she didn't have to feel embarrassed for even living there anymore. And she had decided that even if the program was full that she wasn't returning anyway. She'd just go live somewhere else. Mineral Town, maybe. She'd heard it was nice.

Jill made her way to the train station, humming cheerfully, her rolling suitcases trailing behind her. The city was now sunny and almost unbearably hot, but she didn't care, nor was she surprised; it _was_ summer there, after all. Every year there were the strangest bouts of rain that came down harder than at any other time of year, and at some point the town's residents had stopped questioning it.

A little while later Jill made it to the train station. She had booked her ticket in advance the day before, and the train would arrive sometime in the next ten minutes. So Jill sat outside under the boarding area's rain shelter. The loading area was in back of the ticket booth/homeless shelter building and was mostly concrete with plenty of benches. Trains didn't come through this station that often, so people were often stuck waiting for extended amounts of time for their train.

Jill's train arrived right on time. She stood off to the side while around a dozen passengers debarked, and then she and a few other people got on. The brunette managed to find a completely empty seat in the car she was already in and sat down, shoving her bags in front of her feet roughly. Then she settled in for the two-hour-long ride.

* * *

**Me: Well, there's the first chapter. I'm sorry; all of you who sat through that, it was made of bullshit. :P Stick around for the second chapter, for it is already mostly written in my notebook and is coming soon... "Soon" being I don't know when, but I promise I'll do as much as I can whenever I can, although I don't know how busy I'll be if I try out and get a part in the school play. Ah, well. Look forward to it anyway, for I will try my best to get at least one chapter out per two weeks, if not weekly. XP**


	2. New People, Benji, and a COW

**All right, I decided to start typing this on up today. I apologize deeply for the delay; school is time-consuming. Oh, and I apologize if I accidentally replace Jill's name with Jen. I'm writing another story that has a character named Jen, and sometimes it might just slip off my fingers without noticing. So sorry. XD I'll try to watch that.**

**Thank you to all my reviewers! *hearts* This is dedicated to you!**

**Also, I'm setting a word goal for each chapter: 5,ooo words. I'll probably make it longer each chapter.**

**Anyway, onto the chapter. :)**

* * *

Boring train. Boring, boring train. Jill really should have brought something along to entertain her for the long train ride. Only a half-hour, and she had already exhausted her amusing resources: She had stared out the window for x amount of time, she'd finally finished the last chapter of her book, and she'd already doodled all over the back of her hand with a black pen. She grimaced. Watching trees flash by out the window was dull. They all looked the same to her.

For the next ten minutes, Jill just sort of dozed off. With nothing to rest her head on, she settled for the window, and the only reason that she didn't just fully sleep was that whenever the train made a particularly large bump, it would jolt her halfway out of whatever fantasy dream-land she had been in.

...Most of those involved either doing evil, painful things to all the people she hated(not many), or cupcake-filled dreamlands.

Then the train pulled to a stop with a loud, ear-splitting screech. Jill blearily looked out the window, her head still in a slight fog. Damn, was this her stop?! How long had she dozed?!

She glanced at her watch, now fully awake, and sighed. Nope, she still had an hour and fifteen minutes to go, at least. Phew.

A few minutes of relative peace went by while the sounds of the train doors and the heavy clunks of footsteps registered in the back of Jill's mind. It didn't last as long as she'd hoped, however.

"This seat taken?" came a voice beside her. Jill jerked her head to the other side to find a girl with short red hair and a green backpack slung over one shoulder looking at her with a not-bored-but-not-amused look.

"Ah... no. Go ahead," Jill said, nodding at the vacant seat next to her. The other girl sat down, shoving her bag down in between her feet.

...Damn. Jill had been hoping that her relative solitude would last the entire train ride, because she wasn't that comfortable with new people, but...

No. If she was leaving, then she would just have to get used to talking to more people. Jill glanced over at the girl once more, wondering if she should say something.

The red-head leaned back in her seat with her hands behind her head, looking up at the ceiling of the train, and Jill settled back into her own seat. She would talk to her... later.

Within a few minutes the train began to move again, and Jill felt funny with the semi-awkward silence. More minutes passed.

'So, where are you headed?" Jill asked abruptly, turning slightly. The redhead glanced over at her, lokking not quite but almost surprised that the girl was speaking, one eyebrow up slightly.

"Nowhere really. You've probably never heard of it. Small place," she replied casually.

"Mmm. Flower Bud Village?" Jill asked brightly.

_Now_ the girl looked surprised enough to say the emotion was there on her face. Barely, though. "Yeah. You headed there or something?"

"Mhmm. Moving." The brunette nodded once for emphasis. Her intuition had always been good with things like this, her mom had always told her.

"Ah." The girl paused for a moment. "It's a good place. Nice people."

"Ah." Jill said simply. Apparently the other girl had been the the village before. Was she part of the --ugh, she still hated the name of it-- Exciting Ranch Plan? Was it more popular than Jill had originally anticipated? Oh, that would be terrible for her...

She only managed to fret for a few moments, though, as the other girl spoke again.

"I'm Nami. I'm the weather girl for a small city and the surrounding area, which includes Flower Bud Village," she explained, placing her gaze again upon the painted metal of the train car's roof. Jill glanced up to see if there was something amusing or something, but all that was up there were some scratches and chipped paint that looked oddly like a rabbit.

"I'm Jill," the brunette offered cheerfully. "Nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure," Nami breathed boredly. Almost as an afterthought, she added, "I travel a lot. That's why I've been to Flower Bud Village, if you're wondering."

"Oh. Any other places you particularly like?" Jill asked, intrigued. Nami had probably been to places the brunette had only imagined. She'd never really left her old town, except to visit the nearby city by train with her mom, and she hadn't done that since the...

Jill distracted herself with thoughts about the chipped-paint bunny abruptly. No matter what, she hated thinking about the earthquake... actually all strong forces of nature scared her. Thunder, lightning, hurricanes, strong winds, blizzards, earthqu--... ground-shaking... anything more than heavy rain, really.

Nami managed to snap Jill out of her thoughts. "Flower Bud Village is always nice to visit. I usually go there in summer. Other places, too, like Forget-Me-Not Valley. That's a pretty long ways off, though," said Nami. She had a different look in her eyes, but Jill decided not to question it. Nami kind of gave of an aura that said, "don't dig into my business, 'cause it won't end well for you."

"Oh, is it..." It wasn't exactly a question. "...So, how do you get then weather done every day if you travel often?"

Nami shrugged. "Either I return to the city every week and record the weather for the coming week, or if the city or town I'm in has the resources, I'll get it done using a computer and a green screen."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"Most people don't," she stated bluntly. And with that Nami shifted in her seat slightly more away from Jill and seemed to no want to talk anymore for a few minutes, at the very least. She seemed to be off somewhere in her mind. Jill started to zone out, herself.

"Why're you moving?" Nami questioned curtly.

"Mmm? That's a long story, but if you're up for it..." Jill remarked.

Nami offered a shrug. "We've got plenty of time. F-B-V isn't coming up for a while. And I have nothing entertaining with me."

"All right, I warned you. Well..." And Jill launched into a story about the events that had unfolded since the job loss. She carefully avoided getting into the topic of her mother or the earthquake, although she did mention it once, briefly, which got a murmured "I'm sorry," from Nami. Except for that she chatted happily with the red-head, who offered a simple comment every now and then. Both seemed content with this arrangement. Near the end of the ride the story ended and the conversation traveled onto a wider range of topics for a while.

Soon the train screeched up to a small empty station. To Jill it seemed small, desolate. Nothing but a raised up slab of smooth concrete with a tiny bench covered by a slightly-rusted rain shelter over it. It stuck out like a sore thumb against the lush green grass of the surrounding area. The area they were in was more like a small field, while there was a forest a ways away. Jill could also see the outline of what she thought was the village in the distance, nestled snugly between the grass and the mountain range behind it. She didn't have much time to look, however, for Nami tugged on her sleeve and nodded at her to get up when Jill turned to look at her.

After deboarding and seeing the train off, Jill took a good look around the "station" and then gazed quizzically at Nami.

"Tickets aren't sold here. This station was built out of convenience so travelers wouldn't have to walk forever to get to the village. The true station is ten miles in the direction opposite the village." She motioned left with a quick wave of her hand. "This path will takes us to the village. Let's get going."

The red-head went down the cement steps and onto the loose-packed dirt path that wound off in two directions, and Jill tapped down behind her lightly, smiling. As they started walking, she commented, "So it's harder to leave than arrive, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I'd say it's a scheme to keep people here if I didn't know any better," Nami put in, halfway smirking. "But innocence is a default thing here for almost the entire village."

"Haha. I'll fit in, then."

The conversation continued for the duration of the pair's traipse down the path. Even while she was talking, Jill could taste how pure the air here was. Everything looked more as if the edges had been razor-sharpened, and her surroundings had a diamond-y, crystal, crisper feeling to them. Jill liked it, a lot. The city, now, seemed a thousand years back, hazy at the edges, and grimy. Leaving it behind made Jill a bit down, but mostly she was just happy to be leaving that place behind. Like she should have long, long ago.

* * *

Dirt and gravel turned to cobblestone as the duo entered the village. There was a warm and kind of lethargic feeling to the village, being midday. Jill looked around the town square excitedly as she and Nami came to a stop.

"Well, this is where we part," Nami said. "I'm going to go see someone about a... bet that the better lost." She had an evil glint in her eye that screamed, "I'm kicking someone's butt." Jill mentally shivered. "The mayor's house is just out of the northern exit. It a good-sized house; you can't miss it."

The redhead spun and started to walk away.

"Oh, thanks." Jill said, and as an afterthought called, "Hey! If I stay here, you should come to my house sometime!"

"Will do," came the response. Nami waved lazily with one hand as she walked, and Jill raised her hand and waved back slightly. Well, then. Time to get down to business.

* * *

Nami had been right. The house was straight in Jill's face, and it was pretty, too. The red-head had probably taken the extra time to explain because she could sense how big of a spaz Jill could be. She didn't take it as an insult. It was actually pretty true; she could get lost walking around the corner of her house. Ex-house. Whatever.

And now here she was, ringing the doorbell. A muffled, "Oh!" came from inside, and moments later, the door was opened with a click revealing a young girl with an armful of books, clad in a simple gray dress. A yellow hairband was in her dark blue hair, and when she saw Jill, she smiled.

"You must be Jill," she observed, shifting the books in her arms a bit.

"Uh... yes," she responded. "How'd you know?"

"Oh, most of the village should be anticipating your arrival. It's not often we get visitors, besides the regular ones, and even rarer to get someone willing to move here. Why, this village is getting bigger every year; Alex, who runs the clinic, recently moved here, as well," Maria said lightly, still smiling. "I'm Maria, Mayor Theodore's daughter. He's inside; I can run and get him, if you like."

"Nice to meet you," said Jill, now returning Maria's smile. "And that would be great."

Maria nodded once. "Would you like to step in while I retrieve him?" She held the door open a bit more wih her side, and Jill could see that the house was nice inside, too. She felt a bit awkward walking onto the carpet with dusty shoes, so she nonchalantly wiped them off a bit on the doormat she was on.

"Sure, thank you," said the brunette. She made her way inside and stood there, wondering what to do.

"If you'll wait a moment, I'll get the mayor," Maria said, closing the door with one foot and setting the books on the ground before shuffling off into one of the back rooms.

Jill gazed at the house she was in. It was nicer than her old apartment, for sure. But, of course it would be. The mayor owned it. Everything was neatly in order and was spotless. Jill wouldn't want to live in such a house; she'd be so cautious, afraid of breaking something. She much more preferred an organized jumble of stuff...

She was jerked out of her thoughts when she heard a door open, and shut again. She turned her head towards the sound to find a rather portly man clad in a red jacket coming towards her, smiling broadly with the corners of his eyes crinkling.

"You must be Jill!" he exclaimed, taking her hand and shaking it eagerly. Jill shook back, now smiling. He eminated a good feeling, subtle pride and wise joy. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Yes, nice to meet you, too. You must be Mayor Theodore," Jill replied happily.

"Yes, yes. Now then, I assume you are interested in the Ranch Plan?"

Jill nodded eagerly.

He continued. "Well, that's just grand! Nobody has signed up yet, and there's still three different land plots to choose from."

A wide grin split across Jill's face. "Really? That's great!"

"Ah, indeed. Now, if you'd just follow me to my study, we can get the paperwork in order..."

* * *

The next few hours were spent inside a small room in the house at a desk signing paperwork and discussing plans. Jill was to choose one of the plots of land to live on, pay for some of it on the spot(her idea--she had the money, anyway), and then just gradually pay the rest off through what she got from working the farm. No interest. Apparently someone from a certain "Blue Sky Ranch" had a cow for her to get her started, and since the house and barn were already built, she could move in immediately.

Was this salvation? Sure felt like it to Jill. Everything was going right for once. While the entire process was going on, Jill silently said a prayer for her mother. She was watching over Jill for sure. Maybe she _could_ do this. No--she _would._

* * *

"Well, here we are."

Jill gazed up at the house. It was... well, it was small, but it certainly looked bigger than her old place. It looked cozy. It looked like _home_ now. Jill couldn't stop smiling. She had chosen the land next to the river. It was so beautiful. The barn was there, next to the house, and Jill could hear the scuffling of hooves every now and then, and even a _moo_ echoed from inside, too.

"It's great. Thank you so much," she said approvingly. It was so _perfect_.

"Before you go inside, you should come into the barn and name your new cow. I had Hank bring her here when I got your letter. Hank owns the Blue Sky Ranch, if you didn't know."

"Really? A real live _cow?_" Jill asked excitedly. She'd never seen one in real life. Dogs, cats, birds, turtles, and the occasional ferret. That's all her old city had ever had, and those were nothing new to her. But a _cow?_ Never laid eyes on one before.

"Yes, of course. If you'll follow me into the barn..."

Jill set her bags down on the ground and eagerly trotted after the gleeful mayor. The door was already slid slightly open, and the two squeezed through.

Immediately the thick smell of hay and animals filled Jill's nostrils, and once her eyes adjusted to the light in the barn she looked around. A few meager lights were put in to keep the place visible, but they weren't turned on right now; the sunlight from the door and the small ventilation windows set high on either wall left and right of Jill were enough. A door was across the room, slightly ajar, and next to it there were large pegs, most of them empty. The few things there included a length of rope and a bell, among other things. There were a few small stables on either side of the room, as well... five, Jill counted. Two bigger ones to the right, and three to the left. All of them were open-top, not the sliding-door ones that Jill had seen pictures of. She could see through the spaces in the boards on the gates that each had a small water trough in it. There was a reasonable-sized space in the middle of the room, and there was a pile of fodder there on the dusty ground.

Ah, but the best part had just turned around to look at the pair quizzically before turning back to its fodder. It was a cow, obviously female by the udder, and its head came up to around Jill's shoulder.

Jill just watched it from a few feet away. It was... a cow. A _cow_. Now that she saw it, it was a little bit scary. Would it bite her? Kick her? Would it--

"Howdy, Mayor! This the new one?"

Jill whirled around towards the new voice to find a man shoving himself through the small space left open by the sliding barn door. He had mussed up brown hair, and when he straightened up and smiled, Jill could see that he was missing more than a few teeth. He seemed nice enough, though, to Jill. She had kind of learned not to judge appearances too much, at least where bodily features were concerned. Someone with a maniacal grin holding a knife, on the other hand, _would_ in fact receive the judgment that running away would be in order.

"Jill, this is Hank, the owner of Blue Sky Ranch," Mayor Theodore said cheerfully, bringing Jill out of her thoughts.

"Uh-huh. If you have any questions, feel free t'drop by. I'll have m'nephew Blue drop by later to show you what t'do with the cow," offered Hank in his accent, equally as cheerful as the mayor.

"Oh, thank you," Jill said, smiling. "I appreciate it."

Hank nodded, and the mayor turned to Jill.

"Jill, I'm sorry I can't stay longer, but I have business elsewhere in the village. Hank, can you get her started?"

"Sure 'nuff. See you 'round, Mayor!"

The red-clad man pushed out the door, and Jill watched his retreating shadow. Now it was just her, Hank, and the cow, which seemed to have taken an interest in the brunette girl and was slowly but surely making her way over.

Jill took a step back, mentally panicking. Hank barked out a laugh.

"Aww, she won't hurt ya. One of the best-tempered cows I ever seen!"

"R-really?" Jill asked nervously, reaching one hand out to stroke the now-much-closer cow's muzzle nervously. The bovine seemed to like it, and came closer to lick Jill's hand contentedly. Jill grimaced at the slimy drool now coating her hand, but continued petting the cow.

"See? She's a good cow. Before I ferget: What're you gonna name her?"

"_I_ name her?"

"Of course. She's _yers_, now."

Jill looked back and forth from the cow to Hank a few times, then stopped to think. What to name a cow? Bessie? Too common. ...Only other choice was Miss Moo, after a small stuffed cow that her mother had given her as a child. Why it had been a cow was beyond her, but her mother had always done sort of strange things like that.

"How old is she?" Jill questioned, resuming her petting of the cow's nose.

"Jus' about a year," Hank replied. "She's bin raised good."

Miss Moo would be perfect. Not that her age mattered much; Jill had just wanted to know. "I'll name her Miss Moo."

Hank's face was completely blank for a few moments, just before he burst out laughing. "Miss Moo? Haven't heard that-un before!"

Jill even smiled and giggled a bit. It _was_ a silly name. "It's fitting for a cow."

"Sure 'nuff! Miss Moo it is!"

Jill beamed. This was _her_ cow. Hers alone. This idea to come here wasn't good. It was great. Fantastic._ The best thing she'd ever done._

"Thank you," Jill said, grinning. "I appreciate it. I'm a city girl; I don't know much about farming and stuff."

"I wouldn't imagine you would. City folk dun have a need to learn it. Y'all learn science an' French 'n' stuff. An' ye already said thanks. None more needed." Hank smiled toothily (or rather, non-toothily). "Well, I gotta run home m'self. Like I said earlier: I'll have m'nephew Blue run over here to show you how to take care of Miss Moo-- in a bit. Nice meetin' ya."

"Nice meeting you, too."

He turned and exited the barn, leaving Jill and Miss Moo there. The cow looked at Jill for a moment then waddled back to finish her hay. Jill stood there watching her for a few minutes before walking over and stroking her side a few times, the cow looking at her momentarily.

Her bags were still outside. Jill doubted anybody would steal them... but after giving the cow one last pat, she shoved out the barn door opening and picked the suitcases up. She approached the door. The mayor had given her a house key ("Although, I don't think you'll need it; nobody locks their door out here, because everybody knows one another. We're all familiar with each other," the mayor had explained in his office,) and for a few moments the brunette contemplated dropping her bags to fish through her pockets, but in the end she just leaned slightly against the door to find that it wasn't even closed all the way, as it opened with a small creak of protest. She shoved it all the way open and peered into the relatively dark room, the only source of current light being the beam that was coming from the door, dust particles dancing through it.

Jill trekked in and dropped her bags, looking around for a light switch to find it hanging above her, too high for her short stature to reach easily. With a scowl she reached upwards, even balancing on her toes, but alas, she could not reach the small silver chain. She resorted to jumping, and after a few tries her fingers finally managed to grasp it and pull down for half a second before letting go. Pulling the whole lamp down wouldn't be a good idea, not when she'd barely gotten here. Or ever.

The room was bathed in a warm, white light. Jill found the room to be a good size, bigger than her old apartment, but barely furnished. Across the room there were two doors, side-by-side. The closed one Jill presumed to be a closet, and the other, opened one, was a bathroom. In one corner there was a tiny kitchen, with three counters and a sink. A garbage can stood next to a refrigerator with the freezer on top, yet it looked to be small enough so that even Jill could reach it. She wasn't really that tall for her age. Or for any age over sixteen, really.

There was a twin bed on one side of the room with simple green covers. A wooden nightstand sat next to it with a simple drawer on the front. A few feet away was an empty bookcase and a small television set, and in the very middle of the room there was a small, two-person table with wooden chairs scooted under it. It was a cozy place, Jill decided, unlike the pure mess of her old place. It was a refreshing change.

After closing the door and taking a quick look around the room Jill put her bags on the floor at the foot of the bed and sat down. She fell back onto it and closed her eyes contentedly, resting. The day had been eventful, that was for sure. Her life had basically crashed to the floor around her and put itself back together into something she hoped would be better, and that... that was just amazing. In her mind this had been a joke fractionally, like someone was going to pop up at any point and yell, "Surprise, bitch! This has all been a sick, twisted dream!" and then she would wake up. But now that she got some time to think, it just kind of... hit her. Pretty hard, too. After a minute, however, a knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts.

Jill hurriedly rubbed her eyes slightly and stumbled to the door, opening it and peering out. In her doorway stood a young woman, maybe around Jill's age, with very short-cut brown hair and clad in a yellow and orange dress and an apron.

"Hi!" she chirped, smiling. "I'm Ellen, from Blue Sky Ranch."

"Hi. I'm Jill," replied the twin-tailed girl, blinking a few times at the other. She seemed to radiate cheerfulness and good will, and it was actually helping Jill's mood brighten.

"I think my cousin Blue's going to come over later, but I decided to pop over to ask you something. You see, a few puppies were born on our farm a while ago, and I was wondering if you would like this little one."

A small puppy, previously unnoticed by Jill, started wagging his tail excitedly, thumping it on the ground. Jill looked from the floppy-eared animal to Ellen a few times and thought about it. She'd never had a dog before; her apartments had never allowed them. So a dog would be fun to have.

"Sure!" replied Jill happily. "I'll take him in."

Ellen's smile turned into a grin. "Great! I'm sure that he'll have a better time over here than at our farm; we have many other animals to take care of, and I don't know if he would receive enough attention there. What will you name him?"

Jill stopped to wonder. "I don't know. What would you call him?"

Now it was Ellen's turn to stop and think. "Hmm. Something cute, like Maxie, or Benji."

"Benji's cute," agreed Jill. "I like that one."

"That's great! Benji's his name, then," concluded Ellen joyfully. "Well, I have to get back to the farm and make sure that my father hasn't fallen asleep at the register again!" She gestured with a flick of her hand behind her towards the farm across the street, which Jill assumed to be Blue Sky Ranch. "I do hope you'll come over once in a while; I think we could be friends." Smiling, Ellen began walking back, leaving Jill and the puppy, who seemed to know that he was supposed to stay with Jill.

"Bye," Jill called after her, waving.

Well, now she had a dog, too. This was the best day Jill had experienced in a while. She kneeled down and patted her lap. "Come here, Benji," she said, and to her surprise the puppy gave a squeaky bark and leaped into her lap, trying to lick her face. Jill laughed and picked him up, carrying him with a bit of effort into the house.

Inside, Jill played with Benji for a bit, allowing him to gnaw on her hands with his little puppy teeth. It didn't hurt, really, as the puppy didn't have much force to his bites. She tied an old mismatched sock from her suitcase into a knot and let him chew on that, too, until yet another knock on the door came. Jill, keeping one eye on Benji, went to answer it.

At the front door was a man, quite a bit taller than Jill, wearing a blue and red cap, red shirt, and jeans, with a sour expression on his face. Jill stared up for a few seconds, mesmerized, before sputtering out a "Hi."

"Hey," he replied dryly. He didn't look too pleased to be there, and Jill might have barked out a nervous giggle or two. This was Blue, apparently. He was tall, compared to Jill-- well, _everyone_ was tall compared to Jill, but that was besides the point. If the man didn't have such a bad expression on his face, he would most likely look kind and approachable, but the one on his face currently seemed like it stayed there, for the most part. Not to say he looked completely unfriendly, no; just a hard shell to crack, Jill guessed. "I'm here to teach you how to run the farm," he continued, gazing off into the distance boredly. "I'm Blue."

"Oh... okay," said Jill, not sure of how to speak to him. Jill had thought she'd known people that were hard to talk to, but Blue topped them all. "Thanks. I'm Jill."

"Let's go to the barn," he said, turning towards it as if he'd lived there for his whole life. Jill could tell that, along with the difficult personality, Blue had natural talent with farms and animals. It sort of radiated off of him. He slipped into the barn with practiced ease, Jill trotting after him. She squeezed in, and found him getting a brush off the far wall. Jill would have to remember to ask him to put it back on a lower hook; the one it was previously on was much too high for her. As were most of the rest of the tools that happened to be there. Jill sighed as she realized this; she'd probably have to drag a chair or box in here and lower everything, and she really did have no upper body strength...

"Oi! Jill, was it? Come on. I need to get back to Blue Sky Ranch soon, so I don't have much time here," he said flatly. Jill sighed again. That was the most he'd said to her since they met. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

**Well, that took way longer than expected. XD Sorry 'bout that. Probably wasn't even that good, but whatever. I'll only get better by writing more. It took so long because I already don't get a lot of computer time, and that coupled with the fact that I have to get my GaoaOnline art orders done and my schoolwork caught up, along with studying for finals, means that I don't have much time for writing. I'll try to get the next one (Goal: 5,5oo Words) within a month. No guarantees, though.**

**Anyway, I'm much more motivated knowing that people wait for the chapters, so reviewers=more motivation=faster writing. I know it's a common excuse for reviews, but hey: it's completely true. So click the pretty button and leave me something, please? Alert the story? I'll love you forever!  
**


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